The present invention relates to a hold block.
In traditional elevator structures, mounting the landing door sill requires the use of a number of various hold blocks. The base, i.e. the surface on which the door sill is to be mounted, is generally a slip form cast concrete surface made to approximate measurements. Therefore, the hold blocks are required to have good adjustment and adaptation properties so that the door sills on different floors can be precisely adjusted to the correct height and correct position in relation to each other.
At present, to allow sufficient adjustment of the door sill, supporting angle pieces of different heights or different widths as needed in each case are first fixed to the shaft structure, whereupon hold blocks of suitable width and height for each case are fastened to these supporting angle pieces and fitted to the desired position, and finally the door sill is fastened to the hold blocks. Consequently, mounting the door sills on different floors in an elevator shaft may require the use of as many as several tens of parts of different sizes and shapes. Mounting the overhead structure of the landing door opening also involves similar problems.
The object of the invention is to eliminate the problems referred to above. A specific object of the invention is to disclose a new type of hold block to allow the use of one and the same hold block in all applications which heretofore have required dozens of different parts.
The hold block of the invention has been mainly designed for the attachment of the landing door sill to a shaft structure, such as the edge of the landing door opening, and for the adjustment of the height position of the door sill, but it can just as well be used for the mounting of the overhead structure of the landing door opening or for fastening the car door sill. Therefore, in the following, the underlying element to which the hold block of the invention is fastened is simply denoted by the general term xe2x80x98basexe2x80x99.
The hold block of the invention comprises a fixing element for fixing the hold block to a base and a supporting element, disposed at an angle relative to the fixing element, for attachment of the structural component to be mounted in each case to the hold block, both of said elements being made of the same continuous plate-like material. In addition, the hold block comprises an adjustment elbow between the fixing element and the supporting element to allow adjustment of the angle between the planes defined by the fixing element and supporting element, and a locking element for locking this angle.
In a preferred case, both the planar fixing element and the planar supporting element are provided with elongated fitting holes permitting accurate adjustment of the fastening position in the elongated hole. The elongated fitting holes may be straight or curved apertures and their number may vary from one to a few both in the fixing element and in the supporting element. In an embodiment, the fitting hole in the fixing element is implemented as a hole elongated in a direction perpendicular to the adjustment elbow, and the fitting hole in the supporting element is implemented as a hole elongated in the longitudinal direction of the adjustment elbow.
One or more of the edges of the plate-like fixing element and supporting element are preferably provided with stiffeners formed e.g. by bending the edges of the these plate-like elements into an angle of e.g. 90xc2x0. Preferably at least the two parallel edges next to the adjustment elbow, in both the fixing element and the supporting element, are provided with such stiffeners.
The adjustment elbow, i.e. the connecting part or bend between the fixing element and supporting element, is preferably made of one and the same rigid and strong material as the fixing element and supporting element themselves. However, since the adjustment elbow must permit bending of the fixing element and supporting element relative to each other, the adjustment elbow may be provided with a suitable reduced strength area, such as a hole, perforation or cut-out to facilitate the adjustment.
The adjustment elbow, i.e. the angle between the fixing element and the supporting element, is preferably locked by means of the stiffeners at the edges of these elements, although the locking can also be implemented using separate locking elements or means. Thus, the locking element preferably consists of lock holes provided in adjacent stiffeners and aligned with each other and fixing elements, such as screw bolts or equivalent, fitted in the lock holes. The lock holes are preferably of an elongated shape and, in adjacent stiffeners to be locked to each other, disposed in substantially different orientations relative to each other so that, regardless of the bending angle of the adjustment elbow, the lock holes will always be in alignment with each other and can therefore be locked together with a fastening element. It is also possible to provide one of the stiffeners with only a hole while the elongated hole in the other stiffener is of a curved shape with a curvature in the bending direction of the adjustment elbow.
In an embodiment of the invention, the hold block comprises two fixing elements rigidly connected together which can be used alternatively for mounting a structural elevator component. In this case, both fixing elements are provided with separate supporting elements disposed at opposite ends of the fixing elements, i.e. parallel to each other and at a distance from each other determined by the fixing elements. Thus, the hold block forms a body substantially having the shape of a parallelopiped, e.g. a rectangular parallelopiped, in which the fixing elements connected together constitute two faces and the parallel supporting elements at the ends of the fixing elements constitute another two faces. The remaining two faces are partially open and partially defined by the stiffeners formed by the bent edges of the fixing elements.
Moreover, by giving the equal-sized planar supporting elements at opposite ends of the fixing element preferably a rectangular form substantially differing from the square form, one of the supporting elements is joined to its fixing element via an adjustment elbow on its shorter side while the other supporting element is joined to its fixing element via an adjustment elbow on its longer side. The result is a hold block that provides a large adjustment range e.g. when used for the mounting of a door sill.
If the door sill is relatively narrow, i.e. the space between the wall of the elevator shaft and the car is relatively small, then the door sill is mounted on that end of the hold block where the supporting element is connected to its fixing element by its longer side. Again, if a wider support for the door sill is required, then the hold block is turned the other way round and fixed to the shaft wall or an equivalent structure by its second fixing element so that the supporting element is connected to its fixing element by its narrower side, in which case the supporting element extends farther from the base to which the hold block is fixed.
The hold block of the invention preferably consists of a single continuous metal plate worked and bent into a certain shape. Of course, it is possible within the scope of the inventive idea to implement the hold block by making it from two or more parts and welding them together, although this would not be sensible for technical reasons relating to manufacture.
The hold block of the invention has significant advantages as compared with prior art. In elevator installations, a single hold block as provided by the invention will replace as many as tens of different mounting pieces needed so far for the mounting of the same elevator components. Until now, it has been necessary to include a sufficient number of various mounting pieces in elevator installation shipments just in case they should be needed, to ensure that the elevator can be installed regardless of possible variations in the dimensions of the base on which the components are to be mounted. As the hold block of the invention is suited for use in all different installations, savings will be made in the costs of materials, delivery and manufacture as well as installation, which is made easier and faster and also more accurate and precise than before.
Further scope of the applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention ill become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.